Overcoming Obstacles That Changed My Life

Obstacles, like being an undocumented first-generation student, have shaped my identity in numerous ways. My story is an exercise in resilience, and I believe it to be powerful. However, my story can also cast a shadow over the more enjoyable, albeit mundane, aspects of my life. My love for food is a little-known part of my life which has brought me joy and many learning opportunities. In middle school, I wanted to be like one of the famous French chefs who defined modern cuisine.

Everyday people struggle with various hurdles, how they jump over them is a different story. Like many other young preteens in the world I also had hurdles to learn how to jump over. Learning how to handle even the shortest hurdle was a struggle, the feeling of my emotions going up and down and just everywhere was more than overwhelming. As hard of the obstacle was I did learn how to understand and handle even the tallest hurdle in my life. When I was about fourteen, I found out my grandma had breast cancer. At that time, I didn’t necessarily know what that meant or what was going to happen. I was confused at first and then the symptoms started to creep up on her. The first thing I noticed was my grandma losing hair being so young and figuring

It doesn’t matter how much a person wants to change, if they can’t push through the hard times they won’t be able to get past them. People have to believe they have the power to break the chains the past has on

As I got turned onto my back, fighting for my life, the referee’s hand slaps the mat, and my career of wrestling was over. Throughout all the times I worked out and practiced as hard as I could, my only desire for wrestling was to go to states. Knowing I had the potential, my wrestling coach used life lessons to motivate me throughout the obstacles I faced. Although I never went to states, the lessons I’ve learned from the sport apply to any desire I have in life today. Furthermore, I’ve learned that “some desire is necessary to keep life in motion” to accomplish the goals I have in life.

the biggest struggle for Americans these days seems to stem from poverty, drugs, broken homes, rasicism/discrimination and so on. how lucky i am that i was raised in a loving, upper-middle class familyi’ve never had many friends. throughout elementary school, i’d spend every recess on the swingset because i didn’t want teachers seeing me wander alone and then make others kids play with me. their pity made me more uncomfortable than being alone. as time went on, things seemed to only get worse. middle school was horrible. i would come home everyday and just try not to cry. i’d never felt so alone in my life.

Each obstacle and failure I encountered led me to be the person who I am today; the person who hides the bruises and scars of my childhood with an enormous smile that glows as if light could counteract darkness. My insecurities, struggles with low self-esteem, and failed attempts in my life must be swallowed and sealed so that I have the opportunity to pursue my life dream: being one of the first in my family to say, “I attended and finished

It was one life-changing experience I was seven years old when I became grateful for the things that I had. I remember packing for this big trip my parents were planning for a year now. I precisely recall my mother telling me to go through my closet and pick clothes I did not use to give away, I didn't know why, but I didn't ask, I just did it. As the day got closer I remember my parents had accumulated a great amount of things to give away. I quite didn't understand why they were gathering so many things and for what reason.

Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean? Life throws many different challenges at us at the most random times. Depending on whether you are coffee bean, carrot, or egg, you will respond to life’s challenges in different ways. Personally, I respond the way a carrot would to boiling water. I seem strong and tough, but when I face pain and adversity I become soft and lose my strength. In the past, when life has hit me with adversity, it has been hard for me to regain my strength.

When I was ten, my mother moved to NYC for a new job and my life as I knew it changed forever. The extent of my vocabulary at the time didn’t extend much beyond hello and goodbye. At school, I constantly felt like I was dreaming. My classmates would talk to me, but no matter how I try, I couldn’t understand anything. Determined to master English, I watched everything from cartoons to the news, trying to make sense of the phrases I heard. I spent hours poring over books, looking up meanings of words. It all paid off six month later, when I suddenly realized I was thinking in English instead of just translating. The experience taught me that I should persevere when faced with adversity and that with hard work anything is possible. As a physician,

As I grew older, it was impossible to notice that my world was imperfect. In elementary school, all my parent’s problems here hidden; I didn’t understand my family’s economic status. As I grew older and began to ask my parents question about our lifestyle and compared it to the other people around us. This conversation would always end in the same place; because we can't afford it. My high school is composed of economically unstable families, and economically stable families. Seeing that other families were better off than mine, I grew up with the idea that a comfortable life, is a luxurious life. I know that others around

Living in a low-income family, my life was constantly being turned upside down. Whether it was living without hot water, electricity, or even a home at times I’ve had to work through it all in pursuit of my dreams. Coming home to a situation in complete disarray was a standard for my household, and when something wasn’t burning down in a fire, then life just didn’t seem real. Being pushed around has meant going the “extra mile” to succeed in life. This has meant taking a four-mile bike ride to the Santa Clara library to finish typing up a research paper for my English class or even boiling pots of water to have a lukewarm bath. While these skills are not necessarily the most difficult, they have molded me into being a person who won’t allow setbacks to stop me from achieving my

All throughout my life I loved to run; I even participated in track and cross country all throughout middle school to quench my thirst for a long run. Around the beginning of winter, of my junior year, there came a time when I thought I could no longer run. To further elaborate upon my situation, whenever I would do strenuous physical exercise, or even write in class, my muscles would instantly feel fatigued. It felt very similar to the feeling one gets when their hands have been outside in the frigid cold. I could not even do ten push-ups. Regardless, my muscles would not move as I would like them to. This became a painful obstacle in my daily life. After countless doctor's visits and no signs for a cure I felt hopeless, defeated, and disheartened.

I was living with a man who made $400,000 annually simply for being everyone’s favorite toy. This man had everything he could ever want but he was still stuck with the one thing he couldn’t get rid of; me. I am a reminder of the past, the dirt under a laborers fingernails, the ink splotch on his paychecks. As his resentment grew, i was poor in a new definition. I not only lacked financial aid, but i lacked a support system, i had no family left to tuck me in at night, i had nothing left to hold. Years passed and i got used to this life, i found ways to get to school but i still struggled to understand basic topics. Doing my homework required focus, something i could never get in that house. I scraped by for those 10 years, doing what i could to keep from becoming uneducated like my mother and stuck with a rotten oak

Asking for an outfit that I could wear for my 13th birthday, I saw my parents with a dreadful look, as if their backs were hard to uphold, as if their brown eyes were ripping apart with sadness and discontent, as if they were disappointed in themselves, not being able to provide me with a gift that I deserved. Growing up in a household with parents that only had high school diplomas, had low paying jobs, and five children running around the house, I encountered countless obstacles that threatened to set me back in life. Or, as Oprah Winfrey puts it, “The struggle of my life created empathy- I could relate to pain, being abandoned, having people not love me.” Each obstacle and failure that I encountered led me to be the person I am today, the

As a family of six I was raised on section 8, barely surviving on welfare. I shared beds and clothes with dreams of making it out of poverty, but with little guidance I was at risk of continuing this lifestyle for generations to come. My mother was always at work and my father was absent, which made me skip childhood and mature in order to become independent. I was never that child who had their mother sitting at the table telling them how to do their homework, but rather a child who stood on the table all day and night trying to teach myself. I knew from an early age that I wanted more in life than used clothes and a bike as transportation. I had the dream of attending college and becoming a doctor in philosophy.